Rob mastered everything he chose to pursue. From his career to his hobbies, he was always one of the top in his field. Being a guy, I personally admired his ability to rack up unfathomably high scores on video games (car racing games were his specialty, but he was good at them all it seemed). On a post on his blog earlier, Marla posted an image of the high score screen for a racing game in Vermont. Rob held the #1 and #2 score. Those scores were over two years old when she took that picture – and nobody was even close to touching them.

I will miss having Rob around because I miss being able to brag about my amazing brother-in-law whenever I see anyone playing Links Crossbow training on the Wii – and telling stories of how I’ve seen him play the hardest levels on that game and get his multiplier up into the 70′s (which is very impressive to anyone who has ever played that game) – or talking to people about how he can control a Mini-Z racecar with the finesse of an F1-driver. I will never be able to see anyone play Grand Turismo without chuckling at their ineptitude compared to “the master”. (I’m not exaggerating – he would turn the difficulty and realism settings to their max levels, turn the weather on its worst setting, set it to night, and drive on the reverse version of race courses at breakneck speeds on sheets of ice in the game – and make it look like it was a piece of cake – but that’s a story for another day)

For all of us who knew Rob, it is an extremely sad time for us – primarily because all of our future plans have been cut short. We can’t call him anymore to get his input, or show him a new piece of technology and watch him get excited. At the same time, I am happy for Rob. This was truly a situation where death came “as an angel of mercy” and took away his suffering. 

Of course, I’m also sad for Marla – she’s lost her other half. She’s now separated from her eternal companion. As much as Rob has been relieved of his physical pain, Marla now has to deal with the emotional pain of the separation.